Downsizing (Philanahembree)
Downsizing is a sci-fi comedy romance film, and a partial remake of Alexander Payne's 2017 film of the same name. Every scene following Paul's divorce from Audrey and his regret of downsizing told to Dave (Jason Sudeikis) is a parallel story to that of the actual film. Synopsis Plot In the future, searching for a way to solve overpopulation and global warming, Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen invents "downsizing", a process to shrink people to a height of five foot seven inches (170.2 cm); he and his wife Anne-Helene become part of the first human test subjects once the process is proven safe and demonstrate it to the world. Paul and Audrey Safranek, a married couple in Omaha with financial problems, meet Dave and Carol Johnson, who have downsized. While the inventors advocate that downsizing is environmentally friendly through the reduction of waste, Dave argues that its benefits extend far beyond that and improve one's life through the increase in value of their money. Exploring the possibilities of downsizing, Paul and Audrey agree to undergo the process and move to Leisureland, New Mexico, one of the most popular communities for small individuals. After undergoing downsizing, Paul receives a call from Audrey, saying that she was unable to go through with the procedure and, by opting out at the last minute, will be leaving him. One year later, Paul finalizes the divorce with Audrey, and settles in to his new apartment (a downsizing of its own from the mansion he was to originally share with Audrey). Although Paul had anticipated a life of relative ease, the divorce left him without Audrey's share of their assets. In addition, Paul's share of the asset shrank further still due to divorce settlement negotiations. Paul, whose occupational therapist license had lapsed and faced a re-certification process due to Leisureland being in another state, now works as a customer service representative for Lands' End. While attending a birthday party, Paul has a discussion with Dave and says that he regrets his decision to downsize. Parallel Continuation Dave and Carol plan a double date with Paul and Kristen, a woman he is currently seeing. Seeing all of the happily married couples, Paul storms out, telling Dave he's completely given up, walking off and leaving his car behind. He meets up with a colleague Gavin, who runs a phone line where payers can talk to the 'outside world'. Paul is connected to Monica, a former fashion designer who's interested in Downsizing herself in order to sell her designs again. Over the next few weeks, the two continue to contact each other, with Paul trying to convince Monica to not Downsize, and Monica trying to convince Paul his life was worth Downsizing. One morning, Paul is visited by Joris Konrad, who was contacted by Gavin, and told that Paul was spending too much time in the 'outside world', forgetting why he Downsized himself to begin with. Paul accepts Joris' offer to convince him once and for all that Downsizing was worth it, and is taken around Leisureland, seeing everything he's missed including the enormous swimming pool he was told about when he entered Leisureland, and discovers Ngoc Lan Tran, a former political activist from Vietnam, now working as a cleaning lady at the pool. Asking if she'd like to take a break and join them in the pool, she angrily poors waste into the poor and quitting her job. Before she takes the bus back to her home, Paul finds her, and offers her a ride back to her house. On the car ride, Paul discovers that Tran was forcibly downsized by her countries government for her activism, and that many more from around the world were given the same punishment. Cast * Matt Damon as Paul Safranek * Kristen Wiig as Audrey Safranek * Jason Sudeikis as Dave Johnson * Maribeth Monroe as Carol Johnson * Marisa Tomei as Monica Kolski * Hong Chau as Ngoc Lan Tran * Rolf Lassgård as Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen * Udo Kier as Joris Konrad * Ben Affleck as Gavin Coughlin * Neil Patrick Harris as Jeff Lonowski * Laura Dern as Laura Lonowski * Kerri Kenney-Silver as Kristen * Margo Martindale as a miniaturized woman